Re: Sentience

From: Eliezer Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Wed Jun 02 2004 - 09:59:11 MDT


Ben Goertzel wrote:

> For the Greeks, philosophy and science were too disconnected from one
> another; in fact the Greeks had a very minimal understanding of
> empirical science, as compared to their sophistication in many other
> areas. I believe philosophy can be more useful when more closely
> coupled with science.
>
> A blank slate gives one no guidance on how to proceed.

Right. You're just screwed, as the Greek philosophers were screwed no
matter how hard they tried. What makes you think you can win with
inadequate knowledge resources? Guessing does not suffice unto the task.
To win, one must go back and fetch a bigger hammer, not try to make the
best of a bad deal. Until this is done, one is merely screwed.

-- 
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky                          http://intelligence.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence


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